Why Al Must be Ed's Masseuse
by Ganimyde
Summary: A short essay and a drabble detailing Ed's muscle issues due to his automail, and Al's role in it.


"True Relationship"

An Essay Describing Why Al must be Ed's Masseuse

"That automail's awfully hard on you, Brother," Al says to Ed near the end of the second episode of the English version of the _Fullmetal Alchemist_ anime. Ed's resting his elbows on his legs, hunching over as he usually does, and heavy-heartedly shrugs off the comment. But that he manages to shrug is just one more knot he's going to get in his neck throughout the day, one more knot Al will undoubtedly rub out. The construction of Ed's automail and Al's devotion to his brother makes the logical statement that Al _must_ be a masseuse to Ed, probably every day. This is the _true _relationship.

The main point is that Ed's automail must make him lopsided, muscularly overdeveloped on the other half of his body, or, at the very least, in certain muscle groups. In the anime, Winry, when she rebuilds the machines for the second generation(causing the infamous "loose screw" incident), says she's made the limbs "eighty percent lighter," which amazingly means that if Ed's arm had weighed twenty pounds (which it very well could, because it is, after all, a "full steel prosthetic"(English vol 1, p ?) and full of wires and such), it would now only weigh four. However, that's still a large chunk of weight to be hauling around all day. Even though Ed's parts can be moved(supposedly through nervous system connections, and fluids and valves, perhaps), it stands to reason from the drawings and the fact that it is never mentioned, that the automail has no "muscles" to hold itself up with; Ed, therefore, must support it all with the rest of his muscles.

From this school of thought comes the idea that Ed, as a result, must have highly over-developed muscle groups (nevermind how he's drawn), and potentially, lean and limp as he walks, even though such a thing was not developed in production or plot line of either the manga or the anime, probably for purposes of it being an unnecessary bit that doesn't fit well for what they wanted Ed's character to be. (Also adds extra costs.) Still, if one looks at the drawings of how Ed's automail attaches, it can be found out what muscles and bones are affected adversely.

In the first group of drawings, see the diagram under Ed's left shoulder, or the drawing in the bottom right. These show that the model would pull _a lot_. It can also be seen that the underside of Ed's automail arm is hollow, save for a belt or two and a few sparse wires. (Most of the wiring is in the arm itself, and in the extra containment space in the front, under the "lump" on the chest plate. This is more viewable in the first volume of the manga.) That proves that there cannot be any way that the automail has "muscles" to help support the weight of the design. That means that the muscles in Ed's neck and the ones between the base of his neck and the automail would be continually stressed, and develop bad knots from being pulled all day. This could lead one to think that, whenever possible, though also not very continuitously shown in the anime or manga, Ed might take every opportunity to prop the automail up somehow, like leaning it on other parts of his body, or against walls or chairs when he sits down. (Poor guy.)

Luckily for Ed in this respect, the Rockbells grafted the base of the automail onto his body, rather than---say if he still had a shoulder---just hooked the machine onto some part of his arm. This, while being immensely painful, is actually a very good design, because it helps distribute some of the weight of the shoulder and the 'mail through a large area. The arm's weight is taken by the metal shoulder pieces, so it is conceivable that, even if he had a shoulder, an extra stabilizer like there is now would be put there for this same weight diffusion. The weight in the shoulder is partly taken through the base connected to Ed's chest. However, it must be assumed that that base is grafted to his ribs (the "underarm" part), so that the arm doesn't pull and take the whole thing and a bunch of his skin with it. However, for the very reason that the mail is attached to his ribs means that it cannot pull very much on his bones, or else, over his whole lifetime, very, _very _bad things might happen to his skeletal and muscular frame. So, while Ed probably has to shift some of the weight of the base with the left side of his torso and maybe hip muscles, even, it is safe to think that most of the weigh of the automail is taken by this and the shoulder joint setup, and his remaining shoulder muscles. No wonder he's so muscularly developed, eh?

On Ed's back, however, one can imagine how the muscles along his back, shoulders, and left side, even diagonally down the hip, must compensate to support the automail structure. This weight movement might not be completely the same in the front, because Ed has a very well-developed chest and ab system, and there are more supportive muscle groups in the front. However, the_ pull _on front and back is pretty much the same, even if the corresponding areas in the front and back can't support that weight in the same amounts. Still, this proves Ed _must,_ sadly, be lopsided in some way. Especially when one looks at the fact that, at least in the first volume of the manga, Ed's automail arm is drawn much larger than his other arm. This, though, could be attributed to the newness of the story at that time, or the artist's style, because in the anime his automail actually gets quite delicate at some points of the design when a close look is taken. (Especially in the second and third generations of the designs.) Arakawa wrote in one of the artbooks that in many of the promotional pictures (covers and the like), she indeed made his arm much larger on purpose. In the manga pages themselves, however, anything is a good guess.

Ed's metal leg is quite a different story, however. When he gets the first upgrade in the anime, in order to test out how it feels, he uses both hands to lift up the entire leg; he tests out the knee and heel joints this way (indicating that the apparatus is heavy). Because details like this can't be counted on to have been taken into account in production, there can be no definite points taken from this. However, once the nerves in the leg are activated, you never see him lifting his leg up with the thigh muscles alone. So, if the leg is much heavier than his real leg was, Ed's left leg and the connected muscles up his back would be very developed in order to lug the weight of the leg around. (And it most likely made his hips hang crooked, especially if the whole setup was giving him scoliosis, neither of which are fun issues to live with.) I have no understanding of how prosthetic legs work, so I can't say wether he would walk on his leg normally (throw the foot out forward and then move forward that way), or kind of throw it out with his knee joint, but I'd assume Winry knew how to make it work the most comfortably. It's a good thing it's made out of metal, or else running wouldn't ever happen. In any event, it was probably a godsend when his leg got lighter for him.

However, this understanding of muscle groups brings the inevitable question of, "What happens to all this stress? What's Ed do about it?" With Ed and Al being as close as they are (and Al being so emotionally soft and naive...), only one thought can do: Al is now a masseuse for Ed(proving once again that Ed would be totally lost out in the world without Al). Al, after all, does now have rather large, strong hands to work with, and as caring as a brother as he is, it is logical that he would help out Edward whenever and however he could (especially because Ed could out-complain the most spoiled girl when he gets going. Anthropologically interesting to me, since I had no brothers and the screenwriter is male).

Anyway, it doesn't take long to get a muscle into a "knot," and any good masseuse will tell that, in order to keep the body in the best working order, bad knots that will develop over the course of the day (from compensation, like might happen occur after someone has been in a car crash, has hunched for a long time, has a spinal deformity or a joint or foot problem) should be worked out thoroughly _at least _once a day; "I'd do it for her two or three times a day, if she'd let me," is something this my uncle, a masseuse, said about his wife, who was in a car accident years ago and has the aforementioned effect.

Therefore, it can be said that the Elric brothers' relationship is probably the aforementioned. Here is a scene to help visualize it; as it could be anytime, anywhere, it shall be set at the beginning of both manga and anime—when Ed and Al are trudging through the desert outside of Lior. (Oh yes, it really _is _part fic...)

Ed sighed. Al had was no where to be seen, buried in sand somewhere behind him. He sighed again, falling back to sit on the dune, resigning himself to wait. _Oh Al. . . ._

His head hit the side of the hill and he let it stay there, drowning in heat. _Damn sand._ He took off his coat and stuffed his gloves in the pocket, thought for a second before taking off his shirt, then rubbed the sand out of his eye and fell back over, pulling the coat over his skin to keep himself from getting burned.

Even though at the moment he couldn't care less about such a thing. He was tired, hungry, and thirsty and hot, and he hurt all over, like always.

Just as he moaned, there was a loud but unclear _boom_ and the sound of falling sand.

"Oh, _Niisan_! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for it to happen again, really, I didn't! Sorry!" the suit of armor cried as he ran over to shrouded Ed in a clashing of metal pieces. He yelled before he really saw Ed or knew what was going on, and so quickly had to reappraise his thinking as he saw him slumped over on the ground.

Al approached him in terror, but realized he was resting. "Jesus, Ed," he admonished, taking the top edge of the coat in his hand. "You know your blond skin will fry out here. Cover up your head."

He pulled the hood over Ed's fair skin and by all means expected to sit around in the barren waistland for about the six hours, except that Ed moaned rather angrily and rolled over away from his brother.

"You're hurting again, aren't you, _Niisan_?" he asked somberly. Without waiting for an answer, he took his two index fingers and started rubbing them in two small, opposite circles in the middle of Ed's back, on either side of his spine, just the way he always started.

Ed groaned and mumbled something Al knew to be "I don't want to be touched right now."

"Oh, _Niisan_, you know you like it," he continued, putting down a few more of his fingers, running them over Ed's coat first to transfer any excess heat. Ed's muscles relaxed visibly after a while, making Al smile inwardly. _See? _"And the sand even made my hands all warm!"

"Yeah, melted your bloodseal straight into the metal . . . ," he grumbled, turning his head on his arms. He was quiet for a minute, then sighed, his entire back loosening. "Thanks, Al," he said quickly. Then he grabbed his coat and pulled over the slack not under his top half, over his head.

"Sure," Al beamed, moving the rest of the coat aside, while being sure to put Ed's back in his shadow. Appreciation or not, he always knew he was needed. 

Thanks for reading


End file.
